Metropolitan Danilo I Petrović-Njegoš

Danilo I Šćepčević Petrović-Njegoš (Serbian: Данило I Шћепчевић Петровић Његош) known simply as Vladika Danilo (b. 1670, in Njeguši - d. January 11, 1735, Podostrog-Podmaine monastery) was a Serbian Orthodox Metropolitan of Cetinje 1697-1735. He styled himself "vojevodič srpskoj zemlji" (Duke of the Serb land).^[1]

Biography

Danilo Šćepčević was born in circa 1670, in Njeguši. He is credited as the founder the Petrović-Njegoš dynasty in Montenegro in 1696. After coordinating defense operations and settling, at least partially, tribal (family) disputes among his people, Danilo launched a struggle against the Ottomans in 1711. During his rule political ties between Russia and Montenegro were first established. In 1715, Danilo visited Czar Peter I at St. Petersburg and secured his alliance against the Ottomans — a journey that became traditional among his successors in Montenegro and in all the Serbian lands elsewhere in the Balkans. He subsequently recovered Zeta from the Ottomans, restored the monastery at Cetinje, and erected defences around Podostrog-Podmaine Monastery in Budva which was rebuilt in 1630 and served as a summer residence of the ruling family of Montenegro. In the text written on the manuscript gospel, his gift to Serb Patriarchate of Peć, in 1732, Danilo proudly expressed himself as "Danil Njegoš, the Bishop of Cetinje, the leader of the Serbian land."

External links

• Vladika Danilo on montenet.org - in english
• Preserved Vladika Danilo's Letters - in Serbian
• Official website of the Royal House of Montenegro.
• The Njegoskij Fund Public Project : Private family archives-based digital documentary fund focused on history and culture of Royal Montenegro.

References